Archive for September, 2010

Say Anything bassist Alexander T. Kent has left the band. On the band’s upcoming tour, Kent will be replaced by Kenny Vasoli, the lead singer and bassist of The Starting Line.

Below are some words from Kent:

“It really has been a wild ride. I remember so well the fairly warm December night 6 years ago at Chain Reaction when Max asked me to play in Say Anything. I’ve learned and grown so much while being in this band and these words will not come close enough to expressing the gratitude to everyone in the band, everyone who worked for and helped the band, and all of the amazing fans who took time to come see and talk to us. Thank you.

All of the guys and I are still best friends and hopefully always will be. There are no hard feelings and there was no altercation. I have just decided to start the next chapter of my life. As George Bluthe once said, “It’s time for me to mozy on, partna.” I’m not sure what I’m going to do besides start brewing beer and going to school. I’ll still play music too – maybe with Brian from Weatherbox. So if you’re interested you can keep a finger on the keys…

I wish the very best to Say Anything and everybody in it. Thank you all so much for all the experiences and memories.

UPDATE: The song was unfinished and leaked. Kanye has chosen not to release a new GOOD Friday track this week because of the leak.

Check out a new Kanye West song featuring Bon Iver called “Lost in the World”.

“It sounds exactly like how you want it to sound: forward moving, interesting, light-hearted, heavy-hearted, f***ing incredible sounding jam,” Vernon said. “It was kind of bare so I added some choir-sounding stuff and then thicked out the samples with my voice. We were just eating breakfast and listening to the song on the speakers and he’s like, ‘F***, this is going to be the festival closer.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, cool.’ It kind of freaked me out.”

It seems like Rivers is now finally going back to his roots and paying attention to his fan base. With the release of Hurley, things are finally looking good for nerd-rock band Weezer. The band will also be doing a “Memories” tour, where they will be playing The Blue Album and Pinkerton in their entirety. For several cities , they will be staying two nights by playing The Blue Album on the first night, and Pinkerton on the second. They will also play other greatest hits during both nights.

In collaboration with clothing brand Keep, Animal Collective is producing a new line of shoes. Avey Tare has designed the Tobin, the first shoe of many produced by the band. Although the shoe does not ship until March of 2011, it can already be pre-ordered for $75. These preorders will include a bonus cassette of never-before-heard material from the band. All profits made from the shoes will be donated to the Socorro Island Conservation Fund.

Last week, we introduced you to Looking For Alaska, an indie rock band from Memphis, Tennessee. If you haven’t already checked out their debut EP Everything We All Wish We Could Be, download it for free here or purchase the EP from iTunes. We got a chance to talk to the members of Looking For Alaska (Chad, Calvin, Joshua, Garrett, and Chris) and here is our interview.

For our readers, could you please state your names and what you do in the band?

How did Looking For Alaska come to be?
Garrett: Well, we had all grown up listening to local bands. We all pretty much spent most of our youth at a now-extinct venue here at home called The Skatepark of Memphis. Life was fun. We were all casual acquaintances in the beginning and watched each other’s bands play, and over the years we grew fond of one another’s different styles and spawned a small family of diverse musical preferences. That pretty much began with a local record label here in Memphis called Smith Seven Records. We called ourselves “The Underground Revolution” and that’s exactly what we were. After several years, bands would come and go and tour and what-not, but they always came back to visit from time to time. Looking For Alaska consists of 5 members of this family. I call us a family because that’s what these guys mean to me. They are my family, they are my brothers. I joined this band because I feel that music is by far, the most inspirational styles of media out there, and I think I speak for everybody in the band when I say, if you can make music, you can inspire. (more…)